


Lost, Lost, and Found Again

by nataliecrown (Damerey)



Category: The 100 (TV)
Genre: F/F, Octavia Blake/Niylah - Freeform, Season 4 Setting, The 100 - Freeform, niytavia
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-07
Updated: 2016-08-07
Packaged: 2018-08-07 06:31:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,088
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7704091
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Damerey/pseuds/nataliecrown
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Niylah wanders alone, until she is found on a river bank by Octavia Blake. These two girls, from different worlds, have both lost something. What will it take to find it again?</p>
            </blockquote>





	Lost, Lost, and Found Again

**Author's Note:**

> Can everyone please start shipping Niylah and Octavia? It just makes sense! Plz and thx.

 

Niylah sighed, splashing water over her arms and neck.

Rocking back on her heels, she tipped her head back to the sky and closed her eyes. It was quiet here, but for the gentle lapping of the river that wound away through the trees. Her bag, full of all the belongings she could carry, sat at her side. She was in no rush to pick it up again.

When the coolness of the water began to fade, she tipped forwards, cupping her hands and bringing the water to dry lips. For days now she had wandered, travelling from village to village, and then from clan to clan. She had seen nobody until she neared Polis, and then it seemed she had seen everybody all at once. She saw the crosses, the blood, the blank eyed stares. She fled, as Skaikru had fled her home after they had finished with it – finished with her. Wanheda -  _Clarke_ \- had told her that she couldn’t stay and so Niylah listened and abandoned her home. But Clarke hadn’t told her that there would be nowhere for her to go.

Niylah was used to being alone. Living at the trade stop had meant that only her father was a permanent feature in her life. And he often left her alone to man the store. It had never really bothered her. She had felt important, essential. Now it was different. Now her father wouldn’t be coming back. Maybe nobody was coming back.

Weary in body and mind, Niylah took another cupful of water, and then she started to peel off her filthy shirt. One benefit of there not being anybody around was that she could at least scrub off the sweat and grime without having to care about her modesty.

She was so weary, that she didn’t hear them until something sharp was pressed against her back.

‘Are you alone?’

Niylah’s breath caught. Her heart hummed. There was something familiar about that voice...

Licking her lips, Niylah lifted her hands. ‘Yes.’

The pressure on her back lifted, but Niylah stayed still, her shirt soaking in the water.

‘Stand and turn around, but slowly.’

Niylah’s heart pounded, but not with fear. She  _did_  recognise that voice. And it stirred all sorts of feelings within her. Anger, confusion, but most of all? She felt hope. Finally, after all this time, there was somebody else.

She eased herself off the ground, keeping her hands still. She turned, boots crunching on the stones beneath her feet.

Octavia Blake’s eyes widened, and she dropped her sword immediately.

There was an awkward silence that seemed to acknowledge everything. We came to you, Octavia's bright eyes seemed to say. You helped us, and then we left.

‘I didn’t recognise you,’ said Octavia, after a time, softly.

Niylah's lips parted, but she did not speak. She could not think of what to say, what she _should_ say. This girls brother had been a part of the massacre that had taken her father. Shouldn't she rage? Shouldn't she run?

They stood a few paces apart, awkward and watchful. They had hardly spoken after all. When they had met at Niylah’s home it had been Clarke and Bellamy that she had dealt with. Octavia had moved in and out like a storm, her anger blazing. Niylah had not known what she was angry about. She had not wanted to know. Now, Niylah saw that same anger. But there was something else too. A hollowness, a lack of something. This was not the same Octavia Blake that had thanked her for the clothes that she still wore. Niylah did not know if that was a good thing or a bad thing. And so, Niylah stood still.

After a long silence, Octavia sheathed her sword and turned back towards the trees. She brought two dirty fingers to her lips and whistled shrilly.

Niylah’s heart jolted with panic. Her eyes darted towards the edge of the trees, her hands clenching at her sides, but she relaxed almost instantly and her eyes widened. Indra Kom Trikru appeared from the trees, beckoned by this sky girls call. Niylah had never spoken to Indra, never met her properly, but she had heard much and seen her from afar. Every Trikru knew her. How could they not? And she was here. She was alive. Could that mean...

Indra stepped to Octavia’s side, her eyes fixed on Niylah.

‘I know you,’ said Indra.

Niylah bowed her head, half out of respect and half out of nerves. ‘Yes, my father ran the trade stop on the Trikru, Azgeda border.’

Indra’s eyes closed for just one second, but it was enough to smash that surge of hope that had started to bloom.

‘You are Taryn’s girl,’ she said. When Niylah nodded again, Indra added, ‘Your father died honourably.’

‘And he has been avenged.’

Those words cut through her grief, and Niylah’s gaze jerked up to meet Octavia’s. Fire burned in the sky girls eyes, but it was not a comfort to see her expression twisted with fury. It was no comfort at all. Her father was still dead. Vengeance would not, had not, changed that.

Turning around abruptly, Niylah yanked her shirt from the water. She twisted it ferociously, wringing every drop of water that she could, gripping the fabric until her knuckles were white.

‘What are you doing here?’

It was Indra that answered her.

‘A time of peace is upon us, for a short while at least. I look to find what remains of Trikru.’

Niylah froze. She glanced over her shoulder to meet Indra’s eye. ‘And I’m...the first you’ve found?’

For the first time, Indra’s warrior mask softened. She let the sorrow shine in her eyes. ‘Perhaps you are all that is left.’

The weight of it settled on her once more. She had known. Ever since word had reached her of the sky people's betrayal, she had understood that Trikru was lost. Hearing it from Indra just made it so much worse.

Clearing her throat, Niylah pulled her shirt over her head. She focused on fumbling with the wet material. ‘So, where will you go now?’

Indra spoke again, and there was something comforting about her voice. About her calm. ‘We shall travel for a time, until we feel we have done enough. Then? Who knows. Perhaps we return to Polis, perhaps to...’

‘No,’ Octavia snapped.

Niylah glanced over her shoulder. Indra’s sigh told Niylah that there was a conversation here she had missed, one that explained why Octavia was suddenly rigid and staring at nothing.

‘Your home should be safe now, or as safe as it ever is. The threat we all faced has passed. You can return there.’

Niylah swallowed thickly, tearing her eyes from Octavia to focus on the famed warrior - all that was left of her people. Home? Her home was nothing without her father. She yearned for the memory of it, not this reality.

‘Or you could come with us?’

Just like that Octavia was back with them, blue eyes searching Niylah’s face, her body loose again. She seemed eager, and Niylah did not know why.

‘What of your people?’ she asked, quietly.

Octavia dropped her gaze to the ground, ‘Clarke and my brother are back on the same page. They don’t need me. All is well.’

Bitterness in every word. Octavia Blake, by all appearances, was angry at the world.

‘Think about it,’ said Indra, stepping past Niylah and eying the river greedily. ‘And while you do, I shall bathe. It has been far, far too long.’

 

Niylah sat on the bank, shivering. Though she knew it would not be long until she was boiling, so she savoured the feeling. Savoured the drying clothes against her damp skin. Indra had disappeared, but Octavia was still in the water. The girl had a tendency to submerge herself for just long enough that Niylah considered getting up and dragging her out. Then she would burst from the water, flipping her hair back and gulping in great lungfuls of air. Niylah watched and waited.

She also  _watched_.

She was trying not to, truly, but it was practically impossible. Even with all that anger, and all the grime, there was no denying that Octavia Blake was beautiful. So a clean Octavia Blake gallivanting in a river was nigh on irresistible.

Niylah tried her best to push such thoughts aside, for now was not the time. She pulled her knees up to her chest, and rested her eyes against her forearm. She lasted half a second like that, and then her eyes were peeking again.

‘You know,’ she said roughly, the first time she had spoken since they had started to bathe, ‘my father always said that if I spent too much time in the water I’d get sick.’

Octavia looked over at her, submerged up to her shoulders. She cocked her head to the side. ‘When we first landed, I was so excited to see water that I jumped right in. I was attacked by this giant snake. I would have died if my friends hadn’t saved me.’

‘And yet, you’re still in the water.’

Octavia managed a half smile, her eyes sparking at the suggestion of danger. Niylah wondered if she didn’t half want a sea snake to snatch her away. To her relief, Octavia started to wade towards the shore.

‘I can’t imagine growing up and never seeing water like this.’

‘Yeah,’ Octavia sighed as she stepped from the water fully. In just her underwear, she dropped down at Niylah’s side.

‘Then again,’ said Niylah, kicking absently at the stones, ‘I can’t imagine what’s up there, above the sky.’

‘Metal,’ said Octavia, ‘and darkness.’

‘And stars.’

Octavia glanced at her. Niylah ventured a smile.

‘Yes,’ said Octavia, her expression turning distant once more, ‘and stars.’

Silence again. Only this silence felt somewhat more companionable than the last. Niylah lay back and closed her eyes, unperturbed by the stones digging into her back. Despite who this girl was, and where she had come from, Niylah found she could not be angry. In fact, she felt better than she had in days.

‘Will you tell me what happened? Why does Indra say there will be peace?’

Octavia scoffed, ‘I’m not so sure about peace, but the fight against ALIE is over at least. Did Clarke tell you anything about that?’

‘She explained some. We didn’t talk much.’

Octavia snorted. ‘Well, ALIE is gone. But...so are many others. And there’s no Commander.’

Niylah’s eyes snapped open, ‘What?’

Octavia pushed a hand through her still wet hair. ‘Yeah, a...lot happened. I'm not really sure who's in charge now, or what's happening. But I think that everybody who survived is gathering around Arkadia.'

'With your people?'

Octavia nodded. 'Polis is too...full of bad memories. And King Roan, of Azgeda, is there. I think, if anyone, your people are turning to him for leadership. So if...if you don't want to stay with us, I know you'd be welcome there.'

'And why aren't you there?'

Octavia didn't answer. She stared at her hands, shivering herself now that Niylah had dried. Niylah took the opportunity to study her. Her brow was crinkled, her jaw jutted.

'You said my father was avenged,' Niylah whispered, 'what did you mean by that?'

'Pike. I killed him.'

Niylah's eyes drifted towards the sword that lay beside Octavia's discarded clothes.

'Who is Pike?'

Octavia's head jerked up so abruptly that Niylah tensed, sure that somebody else had found them. Fearing that they were being attacked. But Octavia simply stared at her, and slowly shook her head.

'It doesn't matter. He's dead. And now...I can't go back to Arkadia.'

Despite Niylah's own grief, she found herself feeling grateful as she looked upon the small girl beside her. Grateful that such darkness had not settled over her. She wondered what could pull that darkness back, what could shine a light on the Octavia that was hidden beneath it.

Niylah did not know what had happened between Octavia and this person named Pike, nor Octavia and her friends. She did not know what she would find in Arkadia, but she did know that this girl beside her needed something. Perhaps Niylah needed that too.

'I think I'll stay with you.'

Octavia let out a breath. And then, though she kept her face turned away, Niylah saw her smile.

They were strangers, in so many ways. Yet, they were both lost. Perhaps, together, they could be found again.


End file.
